Southeast Asia is on fire! LINE Business Connect creates new connections with customers

Dentsu Inc. Isobar, certified as a Gold Partner in the 2017 "LINE Business Connect Partner Award Program, " will begin offering "TONARIWA," its LINE Business Connect implementation support solution, in Southeast Asia starting early March 2017.

We spoke with Johei Shimizu, Vice President of the Social Media Marketing Department, and Masayoshi Tomita, Social Media Director, about LINE usage patterns across Asia and LINE Business Connect use cases.

LINE Business Connect enables one-to-one message delivery

--LINE has become a staple communication tool in Japan, but how widely is it actually used?

Tomita: Globally, we have 217 million monthly active users. The top four countries—Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia—account for 167 million of those active users. Focusing solely on Japan, we have 66 million users with an exceptionally high active rate of 71%.
(※Figures from LINE's April-September 2017 media materials)

--What's the difference between LINE Official Accounts and LINE Business Connect Accounts (hereafter "LINE Business Connect")?

Tomita: For "LINE Official Accounts," primarily used by large corporations, messages are broadcast to all users who have added the account as a "friend," enabling reach to a large user base. Over half of these broadcast messages are read, and coupon usage rates are high, demonstrating strong effectiveness in driving store visits or visits to e-commerce sites.

"LINE Business Connect" utilizes LINE's provided API to enable sending and receiving messages individually with each user. Using unique identifiers obtained from LINE, you can send and receive 1-to-1 messages within LINE Talk. Of course, beyond 1-to-1 interactions, it's also possible to optimize and deliver messages to specific segments, such as the entire user base, only males, only those in their 30s, or only users in the Tokyo area.

LINE only provides the API, so each company must develop its own system. However, this places a significant burden on client companies. That's where LINE Business Connect development partners like us come in, handling that part to enable affordable and speedy implementation. Our service, "TONARIWA," fulfills precisely this role.

Forms, bots, CRM integration. The possibilities are limitless depending on your ideas.

--What can TONARIWA do?

Tomita: In addition to the segmented messaging we discussed earlier, TONARIWA offers various core features.
The "Form Creation" feature guides users from LINE chats to a form where they can input attribute information. This is useful when you want to send area-specific campaign information.

Shimizu: Using forms to collect data eliminates the need to link with customer databases. Personal information gathered via LINE is stored in TONARIWA's database, reducing system management burden for clients.

Tomita: A beverage company ran a campaign where participants immediately learned their winning status after form submission, attracting 150,000 participants. While achieving such high participation outside LINE is challenging depending on the campaign, leveraging LINE's high conversion rate enabled an effective campaign.

"One to One Talk" is a bot feature. For example, you can send back decorated photos to users who send pictures via chat. Bots have various other uses too. For instance, if a user answers questions sent via chat, the bot can recommend products.

Shimizu: By linking your member database with LINE using TONARIWA, you can also utilize it as a CRM. With email newsletter response rates declining, sending messages via LINE yields higher click-through and conversion rates, leading apparel e-commerce sites and others to actively adopt this approach.

LINE Business Connect: Revolutionizing Customer Support!?

-- Can you share specific use cases for LINE Business Connect?

Tomita: Hokkaido-based airline AIRDO integrated their reservation system with LINE to deliver personalized boarding QR codes directly via LINE chat. They also implemented "Tabi Navi," a bot that recommends travel information in Hokkaido.

Shimizu: AIRDO highly valued that this case achieved functionality similar to a dedicated app using the LINE platform. Dedicated apps require development costs and costs to promote installation. By using LINE, which users already use daily, as an app substitute, they reduced both the time and cost of development and promotion.

--It seems like there are many possible uses depending on the idea.

Tomita: Yes, we propose not just system integration but also usage ideas. Another area gaining attention is customer support via LINE. Here, actual operators respond to customer inquiries sent through LINE. Chat support is an essential feature for overseas e-commerce, so it holds significant potential.

Shimizu: From the company's perspective, it promises operator cost reduction and prevents communication drop-offs. Phone support requires one operator per customer, but with chat, one operator can handle about three customers simultaneously. Also, while both phone and web chat lose contact if the customer leaves, LINE allows you to review the message history and follow up later.

Initial support routing can be handled by bots, with operators taking over afterward, potentially reducing workload. If widely adopted, this could significantly transform customer support.

-- What future developments are you considering?

Shimizu: LINE Business Connect launched in Japan in 2014, but active adoption really took off in 2016. Initially, it was mostly used for campaign-like media purposes, but we're seeing more cases where it's leveraged as a tool to connect continuously with customers by integrating with CRM systems. As mentioned in the AIRDO case, there are also plans to deliver real-time, personalized information like remaining time until boarding or delay updates.

In retail, one use case involves linking e-commerce member information with LINE IDs to manage both online and in-store purchase data together.

Test marketing was conducted in Indonesia and Thailand. The response was particularly strong for...

-- How is LINE actually being used in Southeast Asia?

Shimizu: In the 2016 Southeast Asian messaging app rankings, LINE ranked third after WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Recognizing that LINE's messaging solutions can be deployed overseas, we are currently researching and advancing this.

Tomita: We conducted test marketing for LINE@ at an idol event held in Indonesia. While the event had many male idol fans, nearly everyone used LINE. They naturally scanned QR codes to add LINE@ accounts as friends, demonstrating its widespread adoption.

-- How about expansion into other countries?

Shimizu: We're exploring market potential through discussions with Dentsu Inc. Media Lab in Thailand. While there aren't many accounts supporting LINE Business Connect in Thailand yet, we sense significant future potential.

While e-commerce is well-established in Thailand, it's also common for individuals to buy and sell goods using Facebook Messenger or LINE. Considering the established e-commerce and widespread peer-to-peer transactions, the market is warming up. By using LINE Business Connect, which enables one-to-one communication, stores could sell products to customers in a way that feels like a personal transaction.

Tomita: Recently, the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper exhibited at a Thai travel expo, where we piloted a service called "Welcome to HOKKAIDO" utilizing LINE. This featured a bot function recommending Hokkaido spots and specialty products, along with a Q&A function where Hokkaido experts answered various questions via chat. Since Hokkaido is popular in Thailand as a snow resort, the event saw many detailed, specific questions like "Where's the closest place to Hakodate where I can take a bath?" or "Which side of the train from Sapporo to Hakodate faces the sea?" Going forward, we want to enable multiple operators to handle these kinds of questions via chat.

Furthermore, we're considering a system using LINE Business Connect that allows reservations. Users send their desired travel destinations via chat, the bot handles it, and ultimately completes the reservation. We want to partner with travel agencies to make this happen. Thailand has been particularly responsive among Southeast Asian countries, so we want to achieve results there first.

-- That sounds like it could have a positive impact on inbound tourism to Japan too. Thank you.